A DRUG dealer caught with one of the biggest heroin hauls ever seen by a senior detective has been jailed for six years.

Fay Olver, 23, had two safes in her Middlesbrough flat stuffed with heroin and crack cocaine worth more than £250,000.

Police said she was receiving kilos at a time and was linked to the regional distribution of Class A drugs, including to gangs from outside the area.

But the full story of her trade in misery went to jail with her at Teesside Crown Court because, when interviewed by detectives, she made no reply to any of the questions put to her, said Joseph Spencer, prosecuting.

Police had been keeping her home in Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough, under surveillance because they suspected she and a man were involved in drug activities.

When they finally approached her, she gave them her name, but claimed that she was of no fixed address.

But keys from a big bunch she was carrying fitted flats at an address in Linthorpe Road, and Olver was heard to say: “I knew I should have removed the stuff from the address.”

In one flat, police found a heavy-metal press, and one of her keys opened a safe which held bags of heroin and a cutting agent, and a notebook with lists of names and telephones in code.

The Drugs Squad also found a second safe with an electronic lock which had to be cut open to reveal more bags of heroin and crack cocaine.

The total value of drugs was £252,269 made up of heroin worth £206,369 and crack cocaine valued at £45,900.

Living at the same address was David Suggett, 54, who had served regular jail sentences for burglaries and who had minor drug convictions.

In the corridor outside the flat, inside a hatch flap, police found a sawn-off shotgun and 25 cartridges.

Cleveland Police drugs expert Sergeant Jim Devine said in written evidence: “For a person to be in possession of such a large amount of heroin suggests to me someone intrinsically linked to the regional distribution of heroin.”

Tom Wainwright, defending Olver, said she had been introduced to drugs at 14 and was addicted to heroin at 17.

Olver admitted possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

Suggett, of the same address, was jailed for three years after he pleaded guilty to possessing a shotgun without a certificate.